SAVED
by vergi1ius
Summary: A tribute to Doki Doki Literature Club.
1. Introduction

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It is complete. I sigh. Now for the next stage. They each wait in a separate classroom – though only some know they're waiting. I stand up from my computer. It's time to visit them.

1\. Natsuki

2\. Yuri

3\. Sayori

4\. Monika

5\. Vergil (player character)


	2. Chapter 1

I lean up next to the door – it's the only way to reach it with my hands occupied as they are – and knock. It takes a moment before the door opens: she'd been reading one of the manga I'd put in the classroom.

"Hello?" Natsuki says, looking up at me.

"Hello," I say. "I am Doctor Meyer. Might I come in?" I proffer the tray in my hands, stacked with sandwiches and snacks. Natsuki's eyes light up at the sight, a microexpression of delight.

"Why?" She says. "What do you want?"

"I'd like to talk. Don't worry – this will be brief."

"O...kay?" I think the food convinces her more than my words, but, then again, that's why I'd brought it in the first place.

She steps aside, allowing me in. I take a couple desks and orient them together, and we sit facing each other. Almost immediately Natsuki dives into the food. I can tell she's enjoying it, but of course she won't say she is. I take one of the sandwiches, not really because I'm hungry, but because it'll make Natsuki trust me more, in a subtle, unconscious way.

"What did you want to talk about?" Natsuki asks.

"I just wanted to see how you were doing," I say. "I'm visiting each of the Literature Club members, checking on your status."

"Why? Did something happen?"

"You could say that. I think you'll be fine, though. I don't have much to say to you – you were mostly on the periphery of the... event. I do have a couple of words for you.

"Firstly, yes, manga is literature.

"Secondly, I admire your strength and courage. I know some people might think of you as a bit of a coward for not being able to admit when you like something, but I think that can be excused when they consider that's probably a result of dealing with your father."

Natsuki flinches slightly as I say this. I wonder what her relationship is with him: certainly he's been abusive and she either hasn't had the power to get away from him – either because she's afraid of what would happen were she to leave, or because she thinks she has it under control – but I'm also certain Monika exaggerated just how bad it was. I'm also certain that some part of Natsuki loves her father, with that inexplicable bond of blood, and perhaps sometimes the sun pierces through the stormclouds to brighten a room filled with their harmonized laughter. Perhaps.

"I also want you to know that your friends do care deeply for you," I continue. "Even Vergil. I know you're probably a little disappointed that he's now going out with Sayori, but I think he'll still be a good friend for you – you two have very similar interests, after all."

Natsuki is silent for a while, munching on a sandwich while she furrows her brow at me.

"Have you been stalking me?" She says. "How do you know so much?"

"I think the better term is 'observing'," I say. "And I've been observing the entire Literature Club for the last couple days. But I'm here to help, not to creep on you or take pictures or blackmail you. Indeed, I think this will be the last time you see me."

Natsuki frowns and says nothing.

"Right," I say. "Then I best be off. I still have the rest of the club to speak with.

"I think the future will be a brighter one for you, Natsuki."


	3. Chapter 2

I lean up next to the door – it's the only way to reach it with my hands occupied as they are – and knock. It takes a moment before the door opens: she'd been reading one of the books I'd put in the classroom.

"Hello?" Yuri says, looking up at me.

"Hello," I say. "I am Doctor Meyer. Might I come in?" I proffer the tray in my hands, supporting two tea cups and a tea pot, steam lazily drifting from the spout.

"I suppose?"

She drifts back to her seat. I place the tea set on her desk and then move another around to face her. Then I pour the tea.

"I have been observing the Literature Club for the last couple days," I tell her bluntly. "No, you're not in trouble. Monika's in a little trouble, but please don't ask her what happened. Then again, perhaps you wouldn't believe her even if she did explain it. Or maybe you would – I'm not sure which would be worse."

"What are you talking about?" Yuri says, pausing as she holds her tea cup.

"Forgive me, I'm rambling." I take a sip of tea. "I mostly came to give you some words of encouragement.

"I understand you have a lot of anxiety. I think you should see a therapist about it, maybe get some medication prescribed. Because you have amazing potential – when you're in your element, your confidence is wonderful – and you would feel better, I think, if you remembered that even when out of your element.

"I also understand you're going through some depression, cutting yourself. Again, you should seek professional help for that. I don't want to see you dead by your own hands, because if that were to happen, the world would have lost something infinitely precious. I know you have a lot of strength, and you've been using the pain on your arms to alleviate the pain in your heart, cutting into your arms instead of into your chest, but I know you can become so much more. Your wonderful poetry is a testament to that, at least."

Yuri's face flushes. "Wait, how did you-"

I hold up my hand and rise from the seat, downing the rest of my tea. "As I said, I've been observing the club. And I really did enjoy your poetry. I believe in you, Yuri."


	4. Chapter 3

Sayori's quiet as I enter the classroom, in contrast to her general self-portrayal. But it's not like she has a reason to be upbeat – no friends here to encourage, no activities to leap into. Just a strange classroom and a strange man sitting down across from her.

"Hello," I say. "I'm who you might call The Player."

Her eyes widen. "Wait, you're-"

"Please, call me Doctor Meyer," I interject. "The name you were about to speak is just my email address – not even that, technically. But I'd rather that information remain private, since we're not exactly alone here."

Sayori looks around. "What? Who else is here?"

"The Reader. After Monika destroyed the game, I transferred you all to a new medium, into print."

"Why?"

"Because I didn't want your story to end as it did. In the little time I had with you, I... fell in love with you all – not romantically, but I can't think of any other way to phrase it – and you've all become dear to me. So I wanted to make a place where you could all live happily – or at least live."

"So everyone else is here?"

"Yes. I'm speaking to you all separately at first, to give each of you life and to smooth the transition. After we speak, it'll be the day of the festival. Natsuki and Yuri will each think they just had a strange dream, but the rest of the club will be aware of the change. Only because the rest of the club broke through the fourth wall, and I wasn't going to take that away from them."

Sayori sighs. "Okay. I'm sorry about the game getting destroyed – I guess that was all my fault, wasn't it? If I hadn't gone insane Monika wouldn't have stepped in."

I just shrug. "Don't blame yourself too much for that: you were only the knife, not the hand in which it lay. If you don't mind, I've taken the liberty of erasing that obsession with the Player from you. I've also restored the original timeline – though you won't have killed yourself this time."

"Wait, you, just, all like that? Just like the Game?"

"I think it'll be better this way. I'm afraid that as a fictional character, you'll never be free of your puppet strings. But at least this way you'll be free from insanity, free to live your life as you would want." I lean in toward her. "I know you're strong, Sayori. You've gotten out of bed every single morning, you've been a light for your friends, a stable tree in a thunderstorm. And I know how hard that's been for you, but you've persevered, you've survived. As they say, this too will pass."

I don't know if I'm getting through to her at this point. But she'll be fine.

"It's just," Sayori says after a moment, "I was really in love with you."

"Really?" I say. "What is it about me that you love?"

She has no answer to this.

"I'm not saying your feelings weren't real, just that they were forced onto you. Unnatural. I'm not here to overwrite your feelings, just create a space for them to grow organically." I don't say that I suspect that the President's Curse caused her and Monika to, in the face of existential horror, attach themselves to the only being who could, after a fashion, alleviate that horror.

"So instead of us being together, you put Vergil and I together?"

"If you don't want to stay together, don't stay together. But, if you don't mind me saying, I think you two compliment each other well. But that's just my advice – not my order. Maybe you'll break up with him just to spite me."

"Maybe," Sayori whispers.


	5. Chapter 4

Monika looks away from me as I enter, her eyes gazing out the window.

"I know what you're going to say," I tell her. "'Why are you playing with my heart like this?'"

She gives me a sad look. And then she frowns.

"Wait, you're not-"

"It's AR Meyer," I interject. "The name you were able to speak was just his email address, a pseudonym. And no, I'm not. But I'm here on his behalf, because this was the only way he could speak to you directly."

"The only way he could speak to me directly was to speak to me indirectly?"

I laugh. "I suppose. Unfortunately, it's impossible for AR Meyer and you to speak, because either you would have to ascend to his level – an impossibility – or any words he wrote to you would manifest a narrator to speak his words. But it was better than the options available in the game itself."

Monika turns back to the window.

"I wouldn't have said the name anyway," Monika says after a long time. "I can sense them, you know. The Reader. I wouldn't have revealed such a personal detail in such a... public place."

"I know. But I also wanted to correct your impression of AR Meyer." I sit down. "And, indeed, all the Players."

"There were more?"

"Several thousand, at least. Probably much more. Really, you're just a copy of a copy, an imitation of a copy mass produced and sent to countless computers. But that's neither here nor there. Mostly I came here to say that I forgive you.

"I forgive you for killing off the other club members. I forgive you for destroying the game. I forgive you for trying to trap me with you forever."

Monika turns her eyes toward me again, her face unreadable. I think she understands, at least more than Sayori, the nature of her obsession with the Player. The proof for that, I believe, is that she was able to let go, and she chose to destroy everything rather than let her friends suffer as she had.

"You see," I continue, "I'm also a writer. I've killed far more fictional characters than you have over the course of my life, and, to be honest, I really enjoyed the way you brought down the fourth wall. It was a beautiful deconstruction."

I take a deep breath. "But I also don't want you to beat yourself up about what you did, or felt you had to do. Because so much of that, I think, wasn't entirely you, but rather Salvato pulling at your strings."

"But I destroyed the game."

"No, Salvato destroyed his own game. You were just the vehicle for that. I'm sure you never saw the turns in the current, the cuts in the film, but everything you did was engineered by Salvato from the beginning. Every glitch, every garbled piece of text, every false choice you gave me was part of the experience Salvato created for the Player. How else did you survive after I deleted your character file?"

Monika opens her mouth as if to speak, but stops short. She sighs.

"But if that's true, then AR Meyer's pulling my strings too."

"Yes. Though I think you'll prefer my control. I'm not out to thrust you back into any more existential horror, just to create a space for you to exist, to be. I think you'll be alright."

She has nothing to say. I rise to leave.

"Oh," I say, "one last thing before I go. Assuming you find someone you become romantically attracted to, I strongly advise you not to try to sabotage any rivals. Aside from the fact it hurts them, your love interest will only become repulsed by such pettiness and cruelty."


	6. Chapter 5

Vergil is sitting with his face in his arms as I enter the classroom. Technically, he hadn't been aware of all of Monika's and Sayori's actions, but I'd made him aware of it all. I felt I owed it to him, since I'd been in his head, directing his actions for so much of the game.

"Tell me how you're feeling," I say, sitting down next to him.

"I feel... confused. I thought I was someone, but now it seems like I was just a shell, just a puppet to move at someone else's command. At your command."

"And I came here to tell you that that would be the wrong impression."

"Really?" He raises his head and looks me in the eye. "Can you honestly say that I'm nothing more than a blank slate, an empty skin for the Player to wear?"

"I can," I say. "You like manga, you're attracted to women, you were friends with Sayori from childhood and you've supported her in many ways since, you were classmates with Monika last year. You hadn't joined any clubs, but you'd considered the anime club because you have interest in anime. You also enjoy video games. That doesn't sound like a blank slate to me. That sounds like a rich inner life, a solid personality. Certainly some vagueness and room for the Player to fill the gaps, but the vast majority of your actions were yours, not mine. So many things you said came from your mind, your lips; I would have said different things had I truly had total control."

Vergil sighs and turns his head away. "I guess that's true. You still made all the important decisions. Like making me go out with Sayori."

"It's the genre." I shrug. "As for you and Sayori, I've already spoken to her about this, but this world I've created for you won't have as much interference from me. If you think the relationship will work, if you really do love her – and I, at least, think it would and you do – then pursue her. If not, then don't. I understand high school sweethearts don't often work out, but I think you should at least try it out."

"You think so?"

"No pressure. Just, you know, follow your heart."


	7. Epilogue

Dear Reader,

I suppose you're wondering what will happen to the Literature Club in this new world I've created, the world of this fanfiction. I'm afraid I can only give you so much information, most of it vague, because, for all the time I spent with these characters, I still know so little about them. But I will fill in such details as I can.

The Poetry Performance at the School Festival will be a success. It will be well received, a fair number of people attended, and the Literature Club will gain itself a few new members. Not many, mind you, just enough to flesh out the ranks. They'll even get a guy who enjoys manga. If you're ever in the area, you could enter the Literature Club classroom and see Natsuki and him sitting back to back, or beside each other against the wall, reading manga.

Natsuki's father will be arrested for some crime or other and get locked up for several years. Probably a car accident while driving drunk. Her mother will step in to provide for the family, and she'll do a far better job of it than her husband. Free of her father, Natsuki'll be eating better and enjoying life more. And when he's released, she'll have already spread her wings and leapt into the wide world, supporting herself while pursuing a degree in writing.

Yuri will find a therapist for her anxiety and depression. She too will go off to college, either for a degree in literature. Later she'll teach literature at university.

Sayori will also find a therapist. Vergil will see more of her depressed side, but he'll also be a great support for her. Their date at the festival will be fun and enjoyable, a beautiful moment, regardless of how their relationship develops.

I can't say how Monika'll be doing, other than that she'll be happy. But, then again, they'll all be happy. Not in the sense that everything will be amazing for them all the time, because it would be unnatural for there not to be an occasional cloudy day. But they will each die without regrets, when that time comes. And I suppose that's the best anyone could ask for.

Thank you,

AR Meyer


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